Hickson 86 in Sagittarius

HICKSON	NAME	SIZE (M)	MAG (V)	SB
86a	ESO 461-007	1.2X0.7	13.3	13.0
86b	MCG-05-47-003	0.5X0.4	13.8	12.0
86c	MCG-05-47-002	0.4X0.3	14.9	12.7
86d	MCG-05-47-001	0.3X0.2	14.7	11.7

This nice quartet is located in Sagittarius! The brightest member ESO 461-007 ("A") is faint, small, elongated 3:2 SW-NE, 45"x30", slightly brighter core. A very faint star is close off the W side. Collinear to the west in a 4' chain are M-05-47-003 = "B" and M-05-47-001 = "D". The "B" member is very faint, very small, round, 25" diameter. A faint star is visible off the W side. The "D" component further west was not noticed initially and required averted vision to glimpse. Appears extremely faint, very small and within 1' following a mag 12 star (which has a wide 14th magnitude companion). Finally the "C" member on the south side of the group is extremely faint, very small, slightly elongated, 15" diameter. - Steve Gottlieb